Solid Masonry Construction: A wall system that is part of the building’s structural support system; typically several wythes thick.

Spalling: The chipping or flaking of concrete, bricks or other masonry when improper drainage or venting and freeze-thaw cycling exist.

Spandrel: The panels of a wall located between visible areas of windows that conceal structural columns, floors, and shear walls.

Special Consultant: A person with particular expertise in a subject who assists the inspector with portions of the inspection.

Special Equipment: Any tools or devices other than those normally used by an inspector to perform a typical and customary, non-invasive, physical examination of the systems, structures and components of a building, including, but not limited to: levels, probes, meters, video or audio devices, and measuring devices.

Specialty Consultant: A person with particular subject-matter expertise who assists the inspector with portions of the inspection.

Spider Crack: A crack resembling a spider web; typically caused by freezing during the drying or curing process of stucco and precast concrete walls.

Split System: An HVAC system that has its primary components separated in different areas of the property.

Splitting: The formation of long rupture that goes completely through a membrane. Splits are frequently associated with lack of allowance for expansion stresses. They can also be a result of deck deflection or change in deck direction.

Square: The condition where the corners of components, such as walls, corners, and openings, are at right angles or perfectly perpendicular to each other.

Stack Effect: Pressure-driven airflow produced by convection as heated air rises, creating a positive pressure area at the top of a building and a negative pressure area at the bottom of a building. The stack effect can overpower the mechanical system and disrupt ventilation and circulation in a building.

Stair-Step Cracking: A crack often associated with masonry settlement and exhibiting a staircase pattern that mimics steps along the mortar joints.

Standard: Often used to mean InterNACHI’s Standards of Practice for Inspecting Commercial Properties.

Static Pressure: Condition that exists when an equal amount of air is supplied to and exhausted from a space. At static pressure, equilibrium has been reached.

Steam Boiler: A type of heating system that heats water to the boiling point to create steam for the unit’s operation.

Steep-Slope Roof: A roof having a slope of 3:12 or greater.

Step Flashing: Small, individual pieces of metal flashing material used to flash around chimneys, dormers, and similar projections along the slope of a roof. The individual pieces are overlapped and stepped up the vertical surface.

Step-Across Distance: The distance from the topmost inner rung, cleat, or step to the nearest edge of the structure, building, platform or equipment accessed from the ladder, as measured from the ladder’s centerline.

Steps: A flat crosspiece of a ladder on which the user steps to climb up and down.

Sterilizer: One of three groups of antimicrobials registered by EPA for public health uses. EPA considers an antimicrobial to be a sterilizer when it destroys or eliminates all forms of bacteria, fungi, viruses, and their spores. Because spores are considered the most difficult form of a microorganism to destroy, EPA considers the term sporicide to be synonymous with “sterilizer.”

Storefront: A non-residential system of doors and windows typically at ground-floor level of a commercial building.

Straight: A condition where something is not curved or bent, such as curved walls or bent beams.

Structural Component: A component that supports the building’s dead and live loads.

Structural Stability: Obvious and observable conditions related to the alignment, movement, or deformation of a structure or its components, such as visible deviations from plumb, level, square, or straight. This does not represent a determination of the adequacy of any structural system or component, an assessment of structural integrity, or a substitute for an engineering evaluation.

Structure: An assemblage of various systems and components that function as a whole.

Stud: One of a series of wood or metal vertical structural members placed as supporting elements within walls and partitions.

Stud Framing: A building method that distributes structural loads to each of a series of relatively lightweight studs (contrasted with post-and-beam construction).

Subject Property: The commercial property that is the subject of the inspection.

Substrate: A part or substance that lies beneath a roof element or component and supports another element or component of the roof.

Suggested Remedy: An opinion offered as to a course of action to repair a deficiency.  Suggested remedies are outside the scope of a commercial inspection.

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